as in whale
something or someone that is unusually large and powerful
mom-and-pop stores just can't compete with these mastodons of retailing
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of mastodon
The frieze, estimated to be about 12,500 years old, depicts massive ice age beasts thought to have once roamed South America, including mastodons and ground sloths the size of a car.
—
Laura Bassett, Condé Nast Traveler, 21 Aug. 2025
Guests can take a boat tour to learn more about the area’s history — which stretches back thousands of years to early Native Americans and mastodons — or stay overnight in the Wakulla Springs Lodge, which dates back to 1937.
—Patrick Connolly, The Orlando Sentinel, 1 Aug. 2025
The landmass used to host multiple forms of mammoths, mastodons, giant ground sloths, enormous armadillos, multiple species of sabercat, huge bison, dire wolves and many more large creatures that formed ancient ecosystems unlike anything on our planet today.
—Riley Black, Smithsonian Magazine, 11 July 2025
Researchers think the wide-open balds were created by grazing animals, first by mastodons and woolly mammoths, and later by deer and elk.
—Elisabeth Kwak-Hefferan, Outside Online, 6 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for mastodon
Laura Bassett, Condé Nast Traveler, 21 Aug. 2025
Guests can take a boat tour to learn more about the area’s history — which stretches back thousands of years to early Native Americans and mastodons — or stay overnight in the Wakulla Springs Lodge, which dates back to 1937.
—Patrick Connolly, The Orlando Sentinel, 1 Aug. 2025
The landmass used to host multiple forms of mammoths, mastodons, giant ground sloths, enormous armadillos, multiple species of sabercat, huge bison, dire wolves and many more large creatures that formed ancient ecosystems unlike anything on our planet today.
—Riley Black, Smithsonian Magazine, 11 July 2025
Researchers think the wide-open balds were created by grazing animals, first by mastodons and woolly mammoths, and later by deer and elk.
—Elisabeth Kwak-Hefferan, Outside Online, 6 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for mastodon
Recent Examples of Synonyms for mastodon
Noun
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The Center for Biological Diversity estimated that the Deepwater Horizon disaster harmed or killed more than eighty thousand birds, six thousand sea turtles, and twenty-five thousand dolphins and whales.—
Jeffrey Marlow,
New Yorker,
5 Apr. 2026
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The whale was discovered Saturday near Raymond, Washington, in the Willapa River, which feeds into the ocean at Willapa Bay.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
5 Apr. 2026
Noun
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As for which dinosaurs laid them, reporting suggests multiple species may be represented.—
Daniella Gray,
MSNBC Newsweek,
30 Mar. 2026
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Free admission gets you dinosaur skeletons, the Hope Diamond and a live butterfly pavilion.—
Lauren Schuster,
Miami Herald,
30 Mar. 2026
Noun
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The Financial Times reported Tuesday that Hegseth’s broker at banking giant Morgan Stanley contacted BlackRock in February about making a multimillion-dollar investment in its iShares Defense Industrials Active ETF.—
Lim Hui Jie,
CNBC,
31 Mar. 2026
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And American tech giants like Amazon, OpenAI and Microsoft see the Gulf states’ abundant and cheap energy and vast land as key to their AI infrastructure buildouts.—
John Liu,
CNN Money,
31 Mar. 2026
Noun
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In Nuremberg,Göring is closer to a sad clown than to a monster.—
Alice Kaplan,
The New York Review of Books,
4 Apr. 2026
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For the non-Nintendo among us, Bowser is Mario’s enemy, a fire-breathing monster and leader of the Koops.—
Dewayne Bevil,
The Orlando Sentinel,
3 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Fossils have also been found that indicate the islands were also once home to pygmy mammoths, which only reached 4 to 6 feet tall.—
Kate Bradshaw,
Mercury News,
23 Mar. 2026
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Surviving Earth explores the world 450M years ago featuring giant sea scorpions, mammoths and sabertooths.—
Peter White,
Deadline,
12 Mar. 2026
Noun
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Not a lot of sports stuff there just yet, but Georgia fans might be interested in this Mike Luckovich mug featuring a title-winning Bulldog eating an elephant.—
Tyler Estep,
AJC.com,
1 Apr. 2026
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Karim just talks to the camera about elephants in a conversational tone.—
Samantha Agate,
Miami Herald,
1 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Mastodon.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/mastodon. Accessed 6 Apr. 2026.
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